Running old ZSNES on modern machine

[Romeo]

I'm trying to run Zsnes 0.991 and I've installed DOS 7.1 on a VM but I have experience with neither. The sound is not working and ZSNES freezes as soon as a ROM loads, not to mention that the cursor is grid-locked in DOS, so I can't select some checkboxes. To hell with DOSBox as it's slow as shit, I've been instructed to run it directly in DOS.

Anyone know how to do it right?

[odditude]

...why are you trying to do this?

if you're really hell-bent on this, your best bet is likely to use MS-DOS 6.22 along with a virtualization app that can properly emulate a true SB16, VESA 2.0 support, and doesn't break mouse behavior. also, don't forget about SET BLASTER.

[kode54]

DOSBox is more than capable of running ZSNES DOS version, as long as you set the cycle speed high enough. This should be done automatically with the default settings in the latest DOSBox.

If your machine is not fast enough to run ZSNES in DOSBox, perhaps it is slow enough to run Windows 2000 or XP 32-bit with VDMSound to simulate a Sound Blaster 16 for ZSNES to have proper sound support. Of course, fat chance of simulating a proper game controller.

[Romeo]

Why? Old classic speedruns.

DOSBox is slow as shit, about 30 fps on my i7. Besides, I like the speedup button. I'll try DOS 6.22 now as 7.10 is obviously unstable. Will I have to set up Soundblaster manually?

[paulguy]

Look up something like "set blaster autoexec.bat". Also you might be using an ancient dosbox version.

[Romeo]

DOSBox 0.74.

Guys, I installed DOS 6.22 on a VM with Soundblaster. I need a good mouse driver though (currently using microsoft's mouse 8.20). It is locked to a grid like in text mode so I am unable to navigate some checkboxes.

[kode54]

Strange. DOSBox 0.74 with all the default settings manages to achieve full speed with ZSNES DOS on my Core 2 Duo E8500. When ZSNES DOS loads, the CPU speed indicator switches from 3000 per frame to "max 100% speed". The fast forward key also manages to achieve a decent rate as well. Switching to a 16bpp video mode didn't slow it down noticeably, either.

Also, I thought movie recording was added after the emulator was ported to Windows. I must be wrong on that count.

[Romeo]

I'll believe you only if you try 0.991 in DOSBox and try a fairly CPU-intensive game.

[kode54]

You are correct. I didn't actually do much more than run the incredibly non-taxing introduction loop of Super Metroid. Star Fox really drags it to its knees.

Good luck getting any virtual machines to run it properly, though.

[Romeo]

It's running properly except that cursor isn't smooth so I can't select full screen mode and the FPS says 50/50 instead of 60/60. Besides that, it's running fine.

[paulguy]

You can probably specify options on the command line. Also, the 50/50 is because you're using a PAL ROM. If your speedrun movie isn't intended for the PAL ROM, it won't work right. If it is, it'll only ever be 50/50 and nothing else. As for cursor emulation, have you tried toggling the "absolute pointing device" option, or yor VM's equivalent?

[Romeo]

Oh, that makes sense if its PAL, I didn't think of that. I enabled "absolute pointing device" in Virtualbox and it changed nothing.

[kode54]

Try CuteMouse. And if it doesn't work as-is, there may be some sort of setting to override the mouse sensitivity or something.

[Romeo]

I tried CuteMouse before and messed around with the settings to no avail. Anyone know what mouse driver DOSBOX uses?

[paulguy]

It emulates the TSR calls itself.

[Romeo]

Whats TSR call?

[paulguy]

Well, drivers in dos are "TSR"s. They Terminate but Stay Resident. In that they place code in memory that can later be called on in some way. For instance, a mouse driver will place it's code in memory that directly interfaces with the mouse. An application will now have a more or less universal interface to a range of harddware which may otherwise be interfaced with differently.

[kode54]

Try Mouse2kv, and mess with the resolution and speed scale values?

[Romeo]

mouse2kv failed, it did nothing. I don't think it installed itself in the system.

[kode54]

Mouse2kv does not install itself in the system. You run it like so:

mouse2kv 640 480 8 8 zsnes.exe [optional parameters for zsnes]

It loads itself into memory, launches the specified executable, and then when that terminates, it unloads itself and terminates.

[Romeo]

That's what I did, it changed nothing. The cursor movement was still choppy.

[kode54]

Yes, but have you tried with other settings? Perhaps resolution width and height to match the video mode you use with ZSNES? Like 320 and 240, and maybe speeds of 4 or even 2 or 1?

[Romeo]

I did.

[Noxious Ninja]

I'm a bit late to the party, but have you tried something other than VirtualBox, such as QEMU, VMWare, or the Virtual PC built into Win7 Pro and up? You could even try installing Windows XP SP1 in a modern VM and then running MS Virtual PC 2004 inside. Hm, I might have to give that a shot.

EDIT: OK, the nested VM thing didn't work. My Inception-esque setup was Win7 x64 w/ VMWare 8.0.2 --> WinXP SP3 w/ MS Virtual PC 2004 SP1 --> MS-DOS 6.22 w/ ZSNES 0.991. Sadly, the video performance was a lot slower than I remembered. Maybe because of the nesting? The outer WinXP VM was also very crashy while running ZSNES.

Win98 directly in VMWare might work. I'll have to try that combo later if I can find my/a Win98 disc.

EDIT2: The Taewoong build of DOSBox runs the Starfox intro at 40-50 FPS for me on my Core i7 2600k.